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until they called the PARENTS of him that had received his sight.'

' And they CAST him OUT. JESUS HEARD that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, DOST thou BELIEVE on the Son of God? He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I MIGHT believe on him?'

'Art THOU GREATER than our father JACOB, who GAVE US the well, and drank thereof, himself and his children, and his cattle ?

Sometimes the slurred part is not really unimportant, the only reason for passing lightly over it, being that we want to give great prominence to some other part.

What IS it, you must, in that event, submit to the people?'

'The smoothness of flattery cannot NOW AVAIL, cannot SAVE us in this rugged and awful crisis.' What PROFIT hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun?'

Wherever we have to connect together, in meaning, words which are placed away from one another in a sentence, we must slur the words which come between them. Thus:

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They FOUGHT (like brave men), LONG and WELL.'

'Soon after this short repose, Argyle was BROUGHT (according to order), to the LAIGH COUNCIL HOUSE (from which place is dated the letter to his wife), and from THENCE to the PLACE of EXECUTION. On the scaffold, he had some discourse, as well with Mr.

ANNAND (a minister appointed by government to atlend him), as with MR. CHATERIS.'

After dinner, he RETIRED (as was his custom), to his BED-CHAMBER, WHERE (it is recorded), he SLEPT QUIETLY for about a quarter of an hour.'

'It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I SAW the QUEEN of FRANCE (then the Dauphiness), at VERSAILLES.'

'He REFUSED (saying), NO, NO, THAT will NOT HELP ME."

The

MISERABLE INHABITANTS (flying from their flaming villages), IN PART were SLAUGHT

ERED.'

'Ay, and that TONGUE of his (that bade the Romans Mark him, and write his speeches in their books.) ALAS! (it cried) GIVE me some DRINK, Titinius, As a SICK Girl.'

It is of very great importance, that the slurred and emphatic parts of a sentence be thus always clearly marked out in the mind of the reader. It is not possible for any one to read correctly without doing it. In many of the sentences given above as examples, it would altogether destroy the sense, if we should neglect either to emphasize strongly the prominent parts, or to slur over the unimportant ones. This will be seen at once, by reading the following sentences, without employing any slur of the voice.

'Argyle was brought, according to order, to the Laigh Council House, from which place is dated the

letter to his wife, and from thence to the place of execution.'

'After dinner, he retired, as was his custom, to his bed-chamber, where it is recorded, he slept quietly for about a quarter of an hour.'

C since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles.'

'He refused saying, No, no, that will not help

me.'

These readings would make it appear that Argyle wrote a letter from the Laigh Council House to his wife, and from her to the place of execution; that his having had a quarter of an hour's sleep was recorded in his bed-chamber; that the Queen of France was Dauphiness at Versailles, and of course no where else; and that the man who is last spoken of refused to say No, no, &c. If, in any of the other sentences given, these slurred parts be read as if they were important, the pupil will soon see how much the meaning is injured by it in them also.

'And they CAST him OUT. JESUS HEARD that they had CAST him OUT, &c.'

After we have fixed upon the emphatic and slurred parts of every sentence, the next thing to be observed is the kind of feeling with which it should be read. It will not do to read every sentence in the same hum-drum way, as is commonly done in schools.

Some things are to be read lightly, in the way in which we should tell a story.

'On the side of the victors almost sixty thousand men had been engaged, and more than one-fourth were left on the field. The number of the vanquished, and the amount of their loss are unknown. By the vanity of the Norman historians the English army has been exaggerated beyond the limits of credibility: by that of the native writers it has been reduced to a handful of warriors; but both agree that with Harold and his brothers perished all the nobility of the south of England; a loss which could not be repaired.'

'Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.'

'And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man to his tent, and there was a very great slaughter."

[Such passages as these must never be read with violent emphasis, such as we often should use in declaiming.]

NATIONAL PRIDE, INDEPENDENCE of our COUNTRY, these we are told by the Minister are only VULGAR TOPICS, fitted for the meridian of the MOB, but utterly UNWORTHY the consideration of THIS HOUSE, or of the MATURED UNDERSTANDING of the noble LORD who CONDESCENDS TO INSTRUCT it.'

'But it SEEMS this is an age of REASON, and the TIME and the PERSON are at last ARRIVED that are to DISSIPATE the ERRORS that have overspread the past generations of IGNORANCE.'

should be a good This will require

In both these examples there deal of scornful feeling given. unequal waves on those syllables which are printed in SMALL CAPITALS. The emphatic words are all marked by capitals. It will not do to put the unequal wave on all of them. Suppose, now, such passages to be read with very slow time, as though their meaning was solemn, instead of scornful, such reading would strike every one as very faulty.

Other passages, which are really solemn, would require long quantity throughout, and emphatic equal waves of the voice on all the emphatic indefinite syllahles.

But THOU, O LORD, have MERCY upon us miserable ofFENDers. SPARE thou THOSE, O God, who confess their faults. RESTORE thou THOSE who are penitent; according to thy promises deCLARED unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

'OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy NAME. Thy KINGdom COME. THY WILL be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this DAY our Daily bread, and forGIVE us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from Evil. For THINE is the KINGdom, and the POWER, and the GLory, for ever and ever, Aмen.'

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